Consulting Stakeholders?

The participation of stakeholders in policy formation has increased, based on the recognition that policy-makers today face increasingly complex and non-linear problems, requiring flexible modes of governance. In this chapter, I analyse the role of formalised stakeholder consultations in EU energy policy and their potential of integrating climate change issues. More specifically, I empirically investigate how stakeholder consultation processes influenced the formation of the EU Energy Communication of 2007. The analysis shows that there was limited diversity of participation in consultations, as actors from civil society or NGOs were not included. Moreover, the role of scientific knowledge in the consultations was minimal. Actors at the regional and sub-national level are generally ignored in such formalised consultation processes. Recommendations for EU policymakers and organisers of consultations are provided.

The Development of a Business Model for Exploiting Geothermal Energy

This chapter analyzes the development of a business model for exploiting geothermal energy. There are a number of small and large firms operating in these markets, but the main challenge facing renewable energy is its commercialization. Developing new types of business models would help in meeting such challenges. The focus is on the Finnish national development project for exploiting geothermal energy. There is obviously growth potential for this energy form in Finland, given that the share of geo-energy of all energy consumption is one percent compared to 10 percent in Sweden, and that the geological environment in the two countries is quite similar. The chapter begins with a discussion of the geo-energy business in general. The empirical part describes the business models of various operators in this field, based on Osterwalder’s (2007) business-model configuration. The product concepts, partnership networks, added value, target groups, customer relationships and costs and revenues are analyzed through these pilot case studies.

European Energy Security and Sustainability

Europe’s economic wellbeing and growth are highly energy dependent and heavily reliant on Russian imports of oil and gas. European energy security, its alternatives, and implications are examined in this chapter with the view of sustainability and the EU-Russian energy dialog. With an asymmetric mutual political-economic interdependency with Russia, Europe’s exposure in oil and gas calls for sustainable energy solutions. Meantime, Russia, the key energy supplier in the European region, is also a major energy consumer whose economy is characterized by high energy intensity. Russian energy sector needs serious improvements in technology, investment, and management: failure to address these priorities erodes Russia’s reliability as major regional energy supplier. The chapter explores the dynamics of Russian energy sector and implications for European energy security and sustainability.

Assessing the Barriers to Greener Fiscal Measures and Ecological Tax Reform in the Transport Sector

However, it is possible that achieving ETR through full internalisation of external costs could be contentious due to political concerns over the potental impact on lower socio-economic groups and rural communities as well as commercial concerns over the competitiveness of the freight sector and macroeconomic impacts.

Renewable Energy in Italy

Italy is a country where the energy supply depends largely on imported raw materials (such as oil and natural gas). The favorable geographic location could encourage the development of renewable energy sources; nevertheless, the growth of alternative energy sources is slow. What are the reasons? This question will be dealt in this chapter, considering three different aspects of the issue: the economic incentives for renewable energies, the problematic process of authorization of the facilities and the local communities’ opposition to new plants. Besides the analysis of these issues, the aim of this paper is to identify possible solutions, taking into account the relevant legislative and regulatory changes that, at national and Community level, have affected and are affecting the field of renewable energy.

Developing Sustainable Governance Systems for Regional Sustainability Programmes and ‘Green’ Business Practices

Achieving sustainable consumption and sustainable living is a response to the scientific and international communities’ concern that the world is living beyond its ecological systems, facing a potential crisis with regard to its environmental and other resources. All individuals, firms and communities, in relation to production of housing, transport and food consumption decisions must unite to develop sustainable change and well being. They all have a role to play in creating and promoting sustainable community development. Sustainability is an umbrella term that incorporates sustainability’s environmental, social and economic dimensions and takes on such ideas as reducing environmental impact, enhancing quality of life, minimising waste, taking a life cycle approach and looking at ecological preservation for future generations. From a business perspective sustainable green practice incorporates all elements of business from inputs procurement, manufacture, packaging design and marketing. To ensure the process of sustainable business is successful and ethical the goals of sustainability and good governance need to be managed in business practice. This chapter offers an overview of current implementation of green governance systems that relate to regional sustainability programmes and green firm’s practices. This work offers credibility to the field of sustainability research and practice by identifying and discussing all actors in the business community and how they interact with sustainability. From a regional perspective innovative primary producers and resource stewards often take up green initiatives with little or no knowledge of the governance quality and legitimacy of the schemes they are seeking to implement. This chapter looks at market-based sustainability initiatives, investigates the strengths and weaknesses of two timber certification programmes, and identifies some key governance requirements to improve green practice at the global, regional and local levels

Technology Roadmapping, An Efficient Tool for Driving Regional Technological Changes

Technology has played a central role in the Northwest’s development, from the Federal Columbia River Power System to technology giants like Boeing, Microsoft and Intel to thousands of businesses, universities and laboratories. In the Northwest, irrigation is high tech. This savvy has allowed the region to meet half of its load growth through cost-effective investments in energy efficiency for more than thirty years. Through the leadership of the region’s utilities, labs, universities, energy organizations and private businesses, the Northwest has been able to successfully deliver energy efficiency as a reliable resource. The Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Sixth Power Plan calls for roughly 85 percent of the region’s power needs to be met with energy efficiency by 2030. In order to meet these goals, we must find ways to increase the adoption rates of existing products and services. At the same time, we must also strategically target the region’s research and development resources into efforts that will produce the technologies needed to enable the products of tomorrow. Beginning in December 2009, thirty-five experts from twenty organizations pooled their efforts to develop an energy efficiency technology roadmap that would define a research agenda for the Northwest. The results of the intensive ten-week effort, along with revisions based on critical comments received following the release of a Northwest Energy Efficiency Technology Roadmap.

Government Policies to Promote Production and Consumption of Renewable Electricity in the US

Various types of renewable electricity policies exist both at the federal and state levels. They are designed to directly or indirectly incentivize producers and consumers of renewable electricity. The existence of renewable electricity policies can be explained by the market failure theory. Without proper government intervention, renewable electricity would be underprovided due to positive externalities associated with environmental pollution and energy independence. Also, in terms of pollution control, encouraging green renewable electricity is more politically palatable than discouraging brown electricity generated from fossil fuels, such as coal and oil. This chapter reviews the primary functions of various policy instruments at the federal and state levels and discusses their effectiveness to the extent possible.

Community Opposition and Public Engagement with Wind Energy in the UK

In the UK, wind energy is an important component of a renewable energy strategy designed to mitigate climate change and secure long term electricity supply. However, wind developments are exceedingly controversial amongst locally affected citizens. This chapter focuses upon the socio-political aspects of wind farm siting in the UK, examining the issues of Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) protest, the attitudes of developers towards ‘the public’, and the policy and practice of public engagement in wind siting decisions in light of recent changes to the domestic planning legislation for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.

Climate Change Policies—Mitigation and Adaptation at the Local Level

Despite city level involvement in climate change policies since the 90’s existing understanding on how cities address climate change is still limited. Yet cities are key in dealing with climate change as they account for two thirds of global energy consumption, three fourths of CO2 emissions and their mitigation potential is significant. In order to advance current understanding on cities and climate change, semi-structured elite interviews were conducted. Data has been analysed using the Environmental Policy Integration (EPI) framework as a pre-requisite for sustainable development in Madrid, one of the EU cities expected to be significantly affected by climate change. The EPI theoretical framework has been used elsewhere in the literature for the analysis of other national and sectorial environmental issues and is applied in this chapter to the local level for the analysis of climate change policies. The research method is hence deductive in nature. The main findings indicate that progress has been made as regards mitigation. Adaptation is occurring spontaneously in sectors already experiencing impacts; however adaptation is poorly integrated into a comprehensive local climate policy.